Mistake No. 5: Getting Too Personal It’s great to get personal with an editor. In fact, I highly recommend it. But don’t take it too far. Your editor is not going to appreciate forwarded jokes, tales of your latest adventures in Himalayas or sob story of your dog’s death. However friendly your editor might be getting, do remember that it is after all, a professional relationship. If you wouldn’t say it to your boss, don’t say it to your editor.

Mistake No. 6: Letting off Steam Your editor’s changed meaning of your review so that it now sounds positive when you clearly intended it to be negative, modified your quotes or hasn’t sent payment even after months of bugging her. You’d want to tell her exactly what you think of her, right? Bad idea. While I wouldn’t suggest being a doormat and accepting what happened, I wouldn’t recommend a fist-session with her either. Go tell her you didn’t like what she did, but do so politely. If you’re still upset, you can always stop writing for magazine, or let her know that your viewpoints don’t match.

Mistake No. 7: Not Proposing Another Idea Once you’ve written for an editor, your chances of writing for his publication again increase by a huge factor. He’s more likely to trust you with more assignments if you come through on first one. So after final acceptance, send off a thank you note and another query. Don’t give editor time to cool off and forget you. Strike when he knows exactly who you are, how brilliantly you’ve done your job and how you’ll make his life easier.

So next time you’re tempted to accept an editor’s initial offer or scream at him for adding in spelling errors, remember that you only have one chance. To keep your clients happy *and* earn a living in process, avoid making these errors of judgment. You’ll soon be on your way to a very lucrative career.

5. Systems -- a group of interrelated elements. What is your backup plan for operating without electricity? What system backs you up when your bridge line collapses in middle of a class? What system do you use if your hard drive fails or heaven’s forbid there’s a fire? What systems require backup plans, what can slide, and for how long? How do you communicate your backup plans to others?

Fieldwork: Make a list of your systems and then create some contingency plans.

6. Support. Do you have a support team? Who do you call to pass on a project that you prefer not to do or you are too busy to handle? What about when your editor or editors are on vacation or busy themselves with other projects? Do your editors understand your topics? Example: If you are a coach, does your editor understand coaching? If an engineer or accountant, do they understand lingo? Do they need to? Do you have a hardware technician or two available? Software specialists? Can they come on short notice?

Fieldwork: Make a list of support personnel and add names to each of those areas.

7. What are your power writing hours? They change frequently. What works on Mondays may not on Thursday because you are sleep deprived by this time every week.

Fieldwork: Track your power hour patterns for a few weeks. Also record what affects any changes, like a TV-show you stayed up late to watch. Heavy meals late at night. Look for patterns and then make new choices that create big changes in your writing production.

8. Do whatever it takes to stay unconfused. Too many thoughts flying around in old noggin? Try this system that I adore when this occurs.

Fieldwork: Create a make-shift white board if you don't have one. Use side of a bookcase, picture, or semi- glass wall. Using Post-It notes, write one idea per note, and paste them up. Stand back and take a large picture view. What is appearing? Move them around according to your needs. What do you see? Nothing, give it some space and return and take another look. Keep moving, adding or deleting until patterns and pictures appear.

9. Exit plan. What is your exit plan for writing or project? Do you plan to get out if something occurs? What is your measurement when you no longer want to be a freelance writer, what to move on to something else, or even just use writing in a different manner? If you are writing an ebook, what happens if it isn't making any money? When do you say, that’s enough effort on this, write it up to experience, learn from it, and begin spending your energy on something else.

Fieldwork: Never take any new project one, until you know what your exit plan is for it. Practice writing them even if they are a sentence or two. This shifts your thinking that stuff is forever because nothing is.

10. Environments do affect your writing. It might not matter if it’s well-organized. Do you have different areas or places that provide different energy for different types of writing? Do you prefer to sit in a garden to write a garden article? Then again, you may prefer to sit in your car. Can you sit in a bookstore to write one way? In library, another? The kids playing loudly for another? Totally quiet for yet another?

Fieldwork: Know what environment fuels what type of writing for you. Make a list, then plan your writing around those environments. Notice as your topics change so will environments need to change.

Reviving up your writing productivity begins with you -- good communication internally and externally. My friends tell me that they can recognize gleam in my eye when something is taking form so they allow me space without interruption to take record my thoughts. Is this what you need? If productivity needs revving. Think, what it is and ask for it.